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I am taking my family to Disneyland in exactly "24 sleeps" (that's how I explain it to my 5 year old). My daughter actually has a calendar on the fridge that we use to count down the days. Sometimes she counts backwards or the wrong direction or skips numbers, etc...but there is no question that she, and the whole family, have an immense amount of anticipation building up to this vacation.

Is work/life balance even possible? Can you really have a successful career and a thriving home life?

I'm pretty sure as a working mom, this is something you've been thinking about....because it seems like the golden ticket. If you could just find a healthy balance between work and home, things would feel better, right? You'd feel less guilty, right? There would be less overwhelm, right? You'd be more productive, right? Your family would get your best self, right? You'd have more me-time, right?

I experience a constant push and pull between being a working mom and the desire to be a stay at home mom. I want to work. But I hate being away from kids. I need the money but don’t want to pay for childcare.

When I was working full-time with an hour commute, all I wanted was to have more time with my daughter, and I envied stay at home moms. When I quit my job to try and work from home as a contractor, I envied moms that didn’t have the distractions of their kids while trying to work. I loved my kids AND I loved working.

She would be expected to be present with her kids. She’d be expected to be at work on time. To prioritize family meals. To visit her aging grandparents. To go on dates with her spouse. To set up play dates for her children. To taxi them to swim, gymnastics, music and soccer…

Do you see where I am going here? Can you relate to this picture of “Superwoman”?

When we’re at work, we’re thinking about the kids. When we’re at home, we’re thinking about work. When we’re at the park with the kids, we’re thinking about making dinner at home. Our bodies are present but our minds are somewhere else entirely.